The days of the week once wanted to be free to get together
and have a party. But each of the seven days was so occupied, the
year around, that they had no time to spare. They wanted a whole
extra day; but then they had that every four years, the
intercalary day that comes in February for the purpose of keeping
order in chronology.

On the intercalary day they would get together
for a party, and, as February is the month of carnivals, they
would come in costumes of each one's taste and choice; they would
eat well, drink well, make speeches, and be complimentary and
disagreeable to one another in unrestrained comradeship. While
the vikings of olden times used to throw their gnawed-off bones
at each other's heads during mealtime, the days of the week
intended to throw jokes and sarcastic witticisms such as might be
in keeping with the innocent carnival spirit.

So when it was intercalary day, they
assembled.

Sunday, foreman of the days of the week,
appeared in a black silk cloak; pious people thought he was
dressed for church in a minister's gown, but the worldly minded
saw that he was attired in a domino for merriment and that the
flashing carnation he wore in his buttonhole was a little red
theater lantern on which it said, "All sold our; see now that you
enjoy yourselves!"

Monday, a young fellow related to Sunday, and
very fond of pleasures, came next. He left his workshop, he said,
whenever he heard the music of the parade of the guard.

"I must go out and listen to Offenbach's music;
it doesn't go to my head or to my heart; it tickles my leg
muscles; I must dance, have a few drinks, get a black eye, sleep
it off, and then the next day go to work. I am the new part of
the week!"

Tuesday is Tyr's day, the day of strength.

"Yes, that I am," said Tuesday. "I take a firm
grip on my work; I fasten Mercury's wings onto the merchant's
boots, see that the wheels in the factory are oiled and turning,
that the tailor sits at his table, and that the street paver is
by his paving stones; each attends to his business, for I keep my
eye on all. Accordingly, I am here in a police uniform and call
myself Tuesday, a well-used day! If this is a bad joke, then you
others try to think of a better one!"

"Then I come," said Wednesday. "I'm in the
middle of the week. The Germans call me Herr Mittwoch. I stand
like a journeyman in a store and like a flower in the midst of
the other esteemed days of the week! If we all march up in order,
then I have three days before me and three days behind; they are
like an honor guard, so I should think that I am the most
prominent day in the week!"

Thursday appeared dressed as a coppersmith, with
a hammer and a copper kettle, as a symbol of his noble
descent.

"I am of the highest birth," he said, "paganish,
godlike! In the Northern countries I am named after Thor, and in
the Southern countries after Jupiter, who both knew how to
thunder and lighten, and that has remained in the family!"

And then he beat his copper kettle, thereby
proving his high birth.

Friday was dressed as a young girl, and called
herself Freia, also Venus for a change, depending upon the
language of the country in which she appeared. She was of a
quiet, cheerful character, she said, but today she felt gay and
free, for this was intercalary day, which, according to an old
custom, gives a woman the right to dare propose to a man and not
have to wait for him to propose to her.

Saturday appeared as an old housekeeper with a
broom and other cleaning articles. Her favorite dish was beer
soup, though at this festive occasion she did not request that it
be served for everyone, only that she get it, and she got it.

And so the days of the week had their party.

Here they are in print, all seven of them, ready
for use as tableaux at family parties. There you can make them as
funny as you wish; we give them here as a joke on February, the
only month with an extra day.